Wisconsin’s offensive line may get an important piece back soon, but Luke Fickell isn’t ready to lock in a timetable just yet.
Right guard Emerson Mandell sat out Week 1, and the Badgers turned to Stylz Blackmon and Blake Cherry against Notre Dame. The rotation gave Wisconsin a look at two new options, but it also underscored how much the group could use Mandell back in the mix.
“I would hope so,” Fickell said this week on Mandell. “I think that we’ll see what Emerson has.
We’ll maybe see if we can get him in some this week [in practice]. If he’s not, then next week.
We’re hoping and believing that he’s getting closer to that.
“But it was very promising. Those two guys rolled in there.
I think Blake ended up with a few more snaps than Stylz, but that was just based on the drives that they were in, but I thought it was a good plan. I think that they switched every series for the most part, which gave those two guys a lot of opportunities out there.
But I’ll give you this, Stylz is another guy that we’re talking about as one of those 16 or 17 new starters that, not to say he’s never played in a game with that magnitude, but that venue and the moment weren’t too big for him. And so I think that’s a really promising thing for us as we continue to grow.”
Blackmon and Cherry handled the job in a split that leaned about 60/40 toward Cherry, and Fickell came away encouraged by the way the two rotated. Still, Mandell’s absence is a notable one for an offense trying to find its ceiling.
Wisconsin also came out of Week 1 with a few other bumps. Eugene Hilton was clearly limited early, which helped explain why he played so few snaps. PJ Wilkins also got dinged up, and that opened the door for Lucas Simmons-Johansson to get work.
Asked for updates on those players and the rest of the injured group, Fickell didn’t have much to offer yet.
“Don’t know a ton yet,” Fickell said. “Today wasn’t as physical, so we couldn’t tell a whole lot of where guys are.
We have some guys that are banged up, there’s no doubt. There’s some guys that we’ll see how the week goes.
It is a physical football game.I don’t care what anybody says.
“We didn’t have a ton of success as we didn’t run the ball well enough, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a physical football game. They rushed for 20-some yards in the first half, and 80-some in the second half.
It was a physical, physical game in all areas. So, we do have some guys that are beat up that maybe haven’t played a lot of ball.
So, we’ll see how they will handle this and work to recover. That will be a big deal for us and we’ll see this week how it all goes.”
Hilton’s limited role also affected Wisconsin’s return game, leaving the Badgers less aggressive than they wanted to be. Even so, he made the most of his snaps, finishing with three catches in just 17 total plays.
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